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Foiled again

The cruel trap laid for Arkansans by the Chamber of Commerce, the Medical Society, the Farm Bureau and their mercenary cronies is now being systematically dismantled, rendered harmless by the Arkansas Supreme Court. The monied interests behind "tort reform" had planned on skinning the common people without interference; the Court has intervened, insisting the people be given a chance.

Last week, the Court unanimously ruled unconstitutional a provision of the "tort reform" law that declared some doctors eligible to give expert testimony in medical malpractice cases (essentially, those doctors on the side of the defendant), and others ineligible (those on the side of the victim). The law violated the separation of powers doctrine of the Arkansas Constitution, the Court said; only judges can decide who is permitted to testify. Legislators had hoped to protect errant physicians from retribution. The Supreme Court decision means that negligent and incompetent doctors will not be allowed to hide behind friendly witnesses after all.

This is the fifth time the Supreme Court has thrown out a portion of the "tort reform" law enacted by a captive legislature in 2003. Last December, the Court ruled that the legislature had exceeded its authority by attempting to impose a $1 million limit on punitive damages. A $42 million award was upheld in that case.

The fixers who'd planned on immunity from lawsuit for their misdeeds are now howling mad at being held accountable. In coming years, they'll spend great sums on judicial elections, most likely — that has been the pattern in other states — and encourage unscrupulous conduct by judicial candidates, hoping to install judges friendly to them. Independent Arkansas lawyers and judges are now studying ways to lessen the impact of big money and big lies in judicial races. More power to them, which is to say, more power to the people.

Speaking of Arkansas Supreme Court, tort Reform

The Arkansas Supreme Court has released the hourly rates charged by lawyers representing justices in the federal lawsuit by Judge Wendell Griffen. They top out at $975 an hour for a lawyer representing Justice Courtney Hudson Goodson. /more/

The news at the Arkansas Supreme Court yesterday was what did NOT get argued in a challenge of a state department's ruling on a tax issue. /more/

The Arkansa Supreme Court has paid out almost $25,000, has $135,000 in pending bills stacked up and expects more to come in defending a suit against it by Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen. Out-of-state law firms representing some individual justices have run up the biggest bills so far. /more/

The Arkansas Supreme Court today kept alive a damage suit filed by the mother of slain KATV anchor Anne Pressly over unauthorized sharing of her medical records when she was hospitalized after she was raped and beaten in her home in October 2008. She died of the injuries. /more/

The Arkansas Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Thursday in a case that could provide some elaboration on the scope of the court's rewriting of precedent to say that the state cannot be sued in state courts. The state is "reluctantly" asserting immunity in a tax case, an argument with huge implications. /more/

The Arkansas Supreme Court has racked up $136,774.62 in legal bills so far paying private lawyers in Judge Wendell Griffen's lawsuit against them for removing him from all cases related to the death penalty. /more/

Attorney General Leslie Rutledge has rejected the ballot title for a proposal to amend the state Constitution to allow the legislature to waive the constitutional provision that prohibits lawsuits against the state, a concept known as sovereign immunity. /more/

The Arkansas Supreme Court today refused a request by the state to reconsider its decision awarding court costs to lawyers in the case that successfully challenged spending of surplus state money, the General Improvement Fund, on local projects designated by legislators. In doing so, it rejected a sovereign immunity argument, perhaps significant given recent court events. /more/

The Arkansas Supreme Court's recent prohibition of lawsuits against the state has now been put to use by the court itself in defending itself against Judge Wendell Griffen's lawsuit over his removal from death penalty cases. /more/

The Arkansas Supreme Court this morning reversed long court precedent — that the state legislature may pass laws waiving the sovereign immunity provision of the state Constitution that says the state may not be made a defendant in its court. /more/

A rediscovered violin concerto brings an oft-forgotten composer into the limelight.

My colleagues John Ray and Jesse Bacon and I estimate, in the first analysis of its kind for the 2018 election season, that the president's waning popularity isn't limited to coastal cities and states. The erosion of his electoral coalition has spread to The Natural State, extending far beyond the college towns and urban centers that voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. From El Dorado to Sherwood, Fayetteville to Hot Springs, the president's approval rating is waning.

Despite fierce protests from disabled people, the U.S. House voted today, mostly on party lines, to make it harder to sue businesses for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. Of course Arkansas congressmen were on the wrong side.

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We're sad to report that Doug Smith has decided to retire. Though he's been listed as an associate editor on our masthead for the last 22 years, he has in fact been the conscience of the Arkansas Times. He has written all but a handful of our unsigned editorials since we introduced an opinion page in 1992.

Last week, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel became the first elected statewide official to express support for same-sex marriage. His announcement came days before Circuit Judge Chris Piazza is expected to rule on a challenge to the state's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Soon after, a federal challenge of the law is expected to move forward. McDaniel has pledged to "zealously" defend the Arkansas Constitution but said he wanted the public to know where he stood.

Remarking as we were on the dreariness of this year's election campaigns, we failed to pay sufficient tribute to the NRA, one of the most unsavory and, in its predictability, dullest of the biennial participants in the passing political parade.

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My colleagues John Ray and Jesse Bacon and I estimate, in the first analysis of its kind for the 2018 election season, that the president's waning popularity isn't limited to coastal cities and states. The erosion of his electoral coalition has spread to The Natural State, extending far beyond the college towns and urban centers that voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. From El Dorado to Sherwood, Fayetteville to Hot Springs, the president's approval rating is waning.